I'll Stand By You
by LitLover 101
Summary: Liv Parker never intended to fall for Tyler Lockwood, but you don't always get what you want in life. And sometimes you're happy you didn't. Blame it on the corny love song. A PARKWOOD fic! Enjoy!


**Disclaimer: I do not own _The Vampire Diaries,_ that honor goes to Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson and the CW. I also do not own The Pretenders "I'll Stand By You." But I wish I did.**

**Hello, my lovely readers. If you've heard I'll Stand By You by The Pretenders, you really, really need to listen to it while reading this fic especially if you keep playing it again and again. Yes, I'm a corny, hopeless romantic. Can't be helped. **** On with the show…**

**I'll Stand by You: **

A not so commonly known fact is that Tyler Lockwood can be a total and complete dork. I mean it. He can be the soppiest, most corny guy that I have ever met. And between myself and my brother, we've met a few guys in our time. But Ty. He's just completely out of this world. But he makes me happy. So what can a girl do?

So, I'm out in the woods for I'm thinking about the billionth time, working with Tyler trying to get him to learn to control that really nasty temper of his and he gets seriously pissed every time I laugh when he can't hold it in. Well, it's not my fault that I'm trying to get him to imagine that he's looking at this guy, Klaus something, only Klaus is a dummy that we're using, and to not rip the dummy's head off.

The problem is that every time I tell him to use his words, he punches Klaus the dummy in the face, and screams a bunch of stuff I don't really want to know about. "Okay, that's enough for today," I call out, getting up from my seat on top of the tree stump but Tyler is still ripping the limbs off of the Klaus dummy. From the little that I know about the real guy that would not work out too well in Tyler's favor. "Calm down," I whisper in his ear and place my hand on his shoulder.

Tyler jerks and flings his arm out, nearly elbowing me in the face. It's a good thing that I have great reflexes. "Liv, I'm sorry," he groans when he realizes what he almost did. "Shit. Maybe we should stop calling the dummy Klaus."

"No," I say firmly. "He's the one person that you hate the most so if you can control yourself when you think of him then you can control yourself around anyone. Okay?" I place my hand on the side of his face for a moment and he begins to search my eyes. It's my fault. I shouldn't have told him that I was afraid of falling for him because now he's always looking at me with this look that says he knows. Stupid mouth. Always getting me in trouble.

"Yeah. Sure. Whatever you say. Oh, wise and powerful witchy one," Tyler says as he leans over to pick the bits of "Klaus" up. "So, there's this dance tonight at Whitmore and I was wondering if you wanted to go with me… Caroline talked me into going as an act of solidarity so that Elena can feel normal or something like that."

"You want me to go to a dance because your ex, who also killed my brother -" I began with my eyes narrowed and my arms crossed in one hundred percent defensive posture when Tyler cut in.

"But he came back. You know why she did it. She didn't want to hurt Luke. Care's not like that," Tyler protested and I had a moment of wondering if a) she brainwashed him into thinking she's a saint or b) he still had feelings for her. Option b had me staring at my feet and trying to not let the hot tears that were building behind my eyes spill forward. I'm not that girl. I don't cry because a guy likes someone else. I just find a new guy.

"Yeah. She's lucky that he did," I spit out and then turned to head back to the truck when Tyler jogs in front of me and grips my arms in his hands.

"Hey, Liv, you still didn't say yes or no," Tyler protested quietly as I look at the trees, refusing to meet his eyes.

"I think that answer is an obvious no!" I snap and then try to pull away but he's doing that vice grip thing that he knows could land him in some nasty headache territory but he does it anyway. What a jock.

"Just go with me. We'll make an appearance and then we'll leave," Tyler cajoles with a smile as he moves his head from side to side until he catches my eye and my lips twitch until I'm grinning like an idiot. God, I hate him.

"Okay. So, I'll pick you up at seven," Tyler says as we walk to the truck.

"No! The only way I'm doing this is if I just show up. So, you can stand around and sweat it out waiting for my grand entrance. Got it?" I ask him as I lean back in my seat and twist my head to stare at him with a mocking grin.

"Fine," Tyler says and then we're leaving.

Hours later I'm walking into this room that's decorated with a banner about some kind of dance that I don't care about. Everyone is dressed formally and I smirk at my brother who's walking down the stairs with me in a suit. I love Luke, but this is more his scene than mine. He doesn't mind getting all dressed up, whereas I hate the Cinderella at the ball cliché. But here I am in this silver, sparkling thing that my brother said I looked hot in. I had rolled my eyes. We'll see.

Stopping at the bottom of the stairs, I look around and spot Tyler. He's wearing a suit and he looks… amazing. Are his shoulders usually that broad? Damn. He's talking to Alaric Saltzman. That's cute. I didn't know that in college we still needed chaperones. Smirking, I head toward the two and Alaric sees me approaching first. "Liv," he greets me and I smile.

"Mr. Saltzman. Funny seeing you here. Are you going to spike the punch bowl?" I tease him with a grin and he smiles back tightly. Sadly, I actually like Alaric. He's not so bad, once you get done being tortured by his many lectures.

"Not really," Alaric replied. "And can I ask why you're here? This doesn't really seem like the type of event that you would go to?"

Before I can reply Tyler loops an arm around my waist. "She's my date," he says with a gleam in his eyes like there's a private joke between the vampire teacher and the former hybrid that I don't get.

"Really?" Alaric nods with a smile. "Good luck with that. I'm going to go check and see if someone did spike the punch bowl."

"That would be me," Tyler called after Alaric who waved him off. Turning to me, he smiles. "He'll thank me later. And did I mention how very stunning you look tonight, Miss Parker?"

"Thank you. Mr. Lockwood," I retort with a smile as he pulls me toward the dance floor. "Oh, no! I never agreed to dance with you."

"Too bad," Tyler replies as he wraps an arm around my waist and we begin to dance to The Pretenders "I'll Stand by You." Oh, that is far too corny. "And this is going to be out song," he announces and I roll my eyes.

"We don't need a song," I snap, even though I'm smiling on the inside.

"Yeah, we do. Otherwise what am I supposed to tell the band to play on our wedding day," Tyler inquires lightly. "And it kind of fits us. Ya know?"

I roll my eyes. "I guess it does," I say as I lean my head on his shoulder. 'Stupid, corny love song,' I groan internally and then I lean backward to meet Tyler's eyes. "Did you say wedding? If you think for one instant that I would ever marry you, you're dead wrong. We haven't even gone out on more than one date for God's sake."

"So you admit that this is a date?" Tyler replies and I groan before laying my head on his shoulder. "Okay, I get it. You want to wait. I can do that because I've died and then been a vampire and then just plain died and my life has pretty much been a train wreck. But then I met you and you're the best thing that's happened to me in a course of really shitty things. So, you better believe that I'm going to wear you down until the day that I do propose and that you say yes."

"Well, I guess you're going to be sporting some awfully gray hair," I tell him and he smiles.

"I told you, I can wait you out," Tyler replied before placing his hand on the back of my neck and pressing his lips to mine.

Five years later:

"Are you ready?" Luke asks me and I nod as the song comes on. Its rock and roll, not one of those boring traditional songs that his friends like to have played at their own event.

Walking toward him, I feel my breath catch as I looked at his tux. 'The man really knows how to find a good tailor,' I think. I begin to smile as Luke takes my hand and passes it to Tyler.

"I told you I'd wear you down," Tyler says with a wink as we turn to face the minster and I control the urge to smack him. I've got the rest of my life to remind him why he's crazy for asking me to do this. Turning to him when the whole thing is done, I begin to laugh because, damn it, I'm actually happy as he kisses me, stopping my laughter and causing my heart to flutter.

'Oh, my God, it's all that corny love song's fault,' I think as Ty takes my hand at the reception and we begin to dance as our song comes on. "You wore me down," I admit so quietly that no else hears but my new husband. Then we both begin to laugh as Damon Salvatore appears and begins to sing "A Total Eclipse of the Heart."

"And you say that I'm corny?" Tyler mutters, placing a kiss to my temple as we sway to the vampire's drunken singing.

"Yes, and I will continue to say that every day for the rest our lives," I tell him and lean forward to kiss him on the lips. And I did. And so did our kids. And our grandkids. You get the picture.

**If you liked this fic hit the fav, follow and review buttons like crazy. Thank you for reading!**

**Peace,**

**Jessica**


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